TimeStructVisualizer

Overview

This package provides functions for visualising time structures from the TimeStruct.jl package. The plots are created using the Luxor package and can be displayed or stored in various formats.

Usage

The example below shows how one can visualise a time structures with two levels.

using TimeStruct
using TimeStructVisualizer

ts = TwoLevel(3, 52, OperationalScenarios(4, SimpleTimes(5,1)))

cost = StrategicProfile(
    [
        ScenarioProfile([1, 2, 3, 4]),
        FixedProfile(2),
        FixedProfile(3)
    ]
)

TimeStructVisualizer.draw(ts; filename="example.svg", profile = cost, layout=:top)

This will produce the following figure

Nested layout for complex time structures

For larger time structures, such as strategic periods with representative periods and operational scenarios, or strategic scenario trees, the :nested layout is often easier to read. Each level is drawn as blocks nested inside its parent, similar to icicle diagrams:

• time runs from left to right, with widths proportional to duration (and to the share of the year for representative periods),
• operational scenarios are stacked with heights proportional to their probability,
• in strategic trees, each node spans the rows of the leaves below it,
• profile values are shown as colors with a legend, which also works for many periods.

TimeStructVisualizer.draw(ts; filename="example_nested.svg", profile = cost, layout=:nested, showdur = true, showprob = true)

A more realistic example is given in examples/wind_nested.jl: four strategic periods of 5 years, where each year is represented by one week per season at hourly resolution with five scenarios each, and the profile gives the hourly capacity factor for wind power.

Drawing options

TimeStructVisualizer.draw(ts; kwargs...) supports SimpleTimes, OperationalScenarios, RepresentativePeriods, TwoLevel and TwoLevelTree, and accepts the following keyword arguments:

Keyword	Default	Description
layout	:middle	:middle connects each level at the middle of the level below it, :top shows strategic periods along the top with the rest hanging below, :nested draws each level as blocks nested inside its parent
showdur	false	Show the duration of operational and strategic periods
showprob	false	Show probabilities of scenarios and strategic nodes, and the share of representative periods
profile	nothing	A TimeProfile whose values are shown below each operational period, or as colors in the :nested layout
filename	nothing	Save the drawing to this file, with the format given by the extension (e.g. .svg, .png, .pdf)
width, height	800, 600	Size of the drawing
palette		Colors for operational time lines, strategic periods and operational periods
style	DrawStyle()	All visual settings, see below. Overrides palette

Sizes, spacing and colors can be adjusted with a DrawStyle, for example

style = TimeStructVisualizer.DrawStyle(fontsize = 14, node_size = 20, palette = ["black", "orange", "purple"])
TimeStructVisualizer.draw(ts; style, showdur = true)

The available settings are palette, label_color, frame_color, fontsize, margin, gap, label_offset, frame_padding, marker_radius, node_size, branch_length and tick, and for the :nested layout cell_color, value_colors, cell_separator, band_gap and legend_width. See ?TimeStructVisualizer.DrawStyle for a description of each.